Daveo, well done on the Parkrun, I did make enquires but the £5k funding was a stumbling block - even when the Parkrun bods said they'd pay half? Wow, 200 pushups is great! I've just started week 6 and can see me being there for a long (long) time. Good call with the morning runs, might do a few myself.

Txs Lisa and yes, the Half fits in quite well with training and have plenty of time to get my stamina up before training starts.

@Andi, did 21, 25, 21, 21, 35 tonight, and that after 6 sets of shoulder presses and 3 of lat raises. Interestingly, I think running has taught my body how to work harder, I used to do a lot of weights but I'm sure I was never able to push this hard before. The pushups are doing the trick, I'm getting pretty toned though they're not helping my weightloss goal that I had for running purposes... Still eating super healthy, but I'm putting on weight!

Sounds like your doing really well Daveo I started a fitness regime back in November when I found out my (beer) belly was 2" bigger than my chest! (39 v 37). A healthy 'diet' and some resistance band work got my belly down to 34.5" by 1st Feb and lost 14lbs of fat gaining 2lbs of lean body mass.

Am supposed to be trying to 'bulk' up more now but struggling to eat the calories so supplementing them with beer again!

Before and afters here and suprised myself at the difference a stone of fat can make...

Oh, someone pointed out I had my skins on the wrong way round in the before pic lol.

They're great results. All you need is a winter holiday somewhere warm now!

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100 push up challenge intital test was 5 push ups on my knees (there is no way I can do a full push up at the mo). How low down did you guys go? I went down as far as having my chin a couple of inches off the ground.

@HM4 my wife started with a couple of weeks on her knees, then probably 4 weeks with only going half way down, got up to about 8 of those, then she went right back to 1 doing 'real proper man-pushups', and yesterday for the first time I saw her doing what I consider real pushups - straight as an arrow, chin to the floor all under control, no hauling herself up. She did four in her longest set yesterday, I was very proud. You'll get there! It's amazing how quickly your arms get stronger. Before xmas my initial test I think I did something like 10 (full pushups), now I can do 40, 45 in one go, 200 in a session, can do pushups with my daughter sat on my back, etc. etc. Keep at it!

I did get up at 6, and I did go for a run. I was shattered the rest of the day, will be an early night tonight!

Txs HM4 and, if the shoulder is ok now am sure you'll be doing them with resistance bands again soon I've been following resistance band workouts for a while but only just started using bans for pushups - whole different ball game!

Thanks. It is isn't! I was considering doing the Insanity Workout dvds after I've finished this pushup challenge however it appears that a lot of people cut back on the running while they are doing it which is something I don't want to do. So will be opting for a 10 minute workout version from the same website.

lol HM4, I have watched some insanity stuff and guess it's name has something to do with people cutting down on running I've not done my resistance bands for a week now as I'm trying to conserve strength for the pushups AND have just started 150 tricep dips and 200 bodyweight squats!

I was planning on doing Insanity over the winter however one of the girls at work has done it & said it was really tough so with my present strength I'm giving it a very wide berth. I did notice the other challenges on that website & know I'm not likely to be doing those.

lol HM4 I've even considered buying a pull up bar! Oh, just been on the asics site and hard training for a 4:59:59 marathon has my easy runs at 13:42mm - I've just spent a month slowing down to 12mm (really helped) but think 13:42 is waaay to slow for me (maybe I should plug in a much faster time lol).

Is this your first marathon? I was aiming for sub 5 hr and looked like I could achieve it until injury struck during one of the long runs. I'd try to stick to the training for a sub 5hr if I was doing another marathon again.

Yup, am a marathon virgin! 5:30 would suit me fine but thought of training for sub 5 just in case I felt good on the day and yes, injury has not been factored in so am guessing this next easy paced 12 weeks before proper training should get me nice and ready?

HM4, well done for starting this, next session for me is Saturday as well and today went quite well for me

5 mile jog today, almost hit all my goals in one go but misjudged when I'd hit the final hill so had a 2 minute walk break (a good half mile long and climbs 175 foot!).

5 mile goals...complete in 60 minutes - checkAve HR below 70% - check (65% today)Complete without walkbreak - to do (soon).Do all the above in one run - target date was originally end of March but there is a good chance I'll do it by the end of feb now

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